GOLF MONDAY: Young Hanover golfer has summer of strong competition

Thayer Academy's Jake Ratti, who won the Independent Schools League championship in the spring, has faced top-notch competition in various tournament this summer.

Jay N. MillerEnterprise Correspondent

The 54-hole New England Amateur Junior Invitational was held last week at the par-71 Ledgemont Country Club in Seekonk, and the seven-man team from Massachusetts took home the championship with an aggregate score of 1081, 17 strokes better than runner-up Connecticut. Maine was third, Rhode Island fourth, with Vermont and New Hampshire tying for fifth.

The Bay State squad was led by Steven DiLisio of Salem CC., who took individual honors with a 1-over 214, edging Connecticut’s Evan Grenus by a stroke.

Hanover’s Jake Ratti of The Harmon Club, a Thayer Academy star entering his senior year, was tied for 18th with a score of 224. Ratti has had a nice golfing season thus far, which started in the spring when he won the Independent Schools League championship with a clutch birdie on the 18th hole at the Renaissance Golf Club. He finished 20th overall in the Providence Open, as the fifth best amateur. Jake and dad Paul Ratti took third place in the MGA’s Father-Son Tournament, posting a 3-over 73.

Jake Ratti recently competed in the Gately Cup, part of the Challenge Cup Series that is affiliated with the Future College World Tour for outstanding high school golfers. Since that series is based in Rhode Island, Ratti has spent much of his summer playing in tournaments in Rhode Island and Connecticut, rather than closer to home.

“I had played Ledgemont once before, so I wasn’t going in completely blind,” said Ratti of the Seekonk course. “It is a good course, which I liked, but the greens were tricky – not too fast, but with undulations. I felt like I had played pretty well my first two rounds, shooting 74 both times. But on my last round, I didn’t really get too many putts dropping for me, so finishing 18th was doing pretty well, considering that.

“The Gately Cup was played at Connecticut National in Putnam, Connecticut,” Ratti explained. “It’s a par-71 course and I shot 76 the first day, and 71 the second, to finish eighth out of 72 golfers. I ended up four strokes off the pace and I am pretty satisfied with that. This really wraps up my summer tournaments, although I have a couple junior tourneys in September. It has been a lot of traveling, going to Connecticut or Rhode Island almost every day.

“The Challenge Cup has a points system, with a Player of the Year award,” he said, “but their scoreboard isn’t up-to-date on that, so I’m not sure where I stand. Mostly this is a great way to play against top-notch competition, and also be seen by colleges – there are college coaches at every event. I want to go to a Division 1 college and play golf, but I haven’t really heard much from the colleges yet.”

Thayer Academy is noted for its fine football, lacrosse, hockey and baseball programs, but does the spring golf team get much notice on campus?

“Truthfully, no, we don’t get much recognition at school,” said Ratti. “But the team is a good group of kids and it includes a lot of other really talented players, so every day is a good challenge. We also see each other a lot on the summer tournaments, so that makes it even more fun. You get used to competing against top-level golfers and so you’re not at all nervous going into these tournaments in the summer.”

Did Ratti winning the club championship at The Harmon Club make any of his older clubmates a little, shall we say, envious?

“The Harmon is really dominated by kids,” said Ratti. “There are a lot of good kids playing there, and really, all the best golfers there are the youngest ones, so the older golfers are all just really supportive.”

N.E. PGA Championship: The 2014 New England PGA Championship took place last weekend in New Hampshire with Rich Berberian of the Windham Country Club taking home the $17,000 first place bounty with a 5-under-par 211.

The 54-hole tournament played its first round at Portsmouth Country Club in Greenland, N.H., and then moved to the Golf Club of New England at Stratham for the final two rounds. Berberian posted scores of 69-71-71 to win the championship by three strokes.

Two golfers tied for second place as Jeff Seavey of Samoset Resort and Shawn Warren of Falmouth Country Club each posted a 2-under 214. The highest finisher from the South Shore was Jeffrey Martin on Norton CC, who grabbed fourth with an even-par 216.

Mass. Mid-Am qualifiers: The qualfiers for the Massachusetts Mid-Amateur Championship conclude today at Country Club of Greenfield. There were some South Shore golfers among those who qualified Aug. 18 at Lowell’s Mount Pleasant Golf Club. Three golfers tied for first place at 1-over 73 – Kyle Parsons of Walpole CC, Phil Miceli of Sagamore Springs Golf Club and Wayne Pettee of Tedesco CC.

Also qualifying at the Lowell course were Damon Lusk of Granite Links, tied for seventh with a 75, and Joseph Frew, also of Granite Links, whose 76 earned him a tie for 10th place.

U.S. Senior Women’s Sectional: A U.S. Women’s Senior Championship sectional qualifier was held Aug. 19 at Newport Country Club with 10 golfers qualifying on the par-72 course. Philadelphia’s Lisa McGill took first place with an even-par 72, two strokes up on Rowley’s Amy Dickison’s. Lisa Anderson of Middleton was among four golfers tied for third at 76, while Wellesley’s Pam Kuong was among two competitors tied for sixth with a 78. Cheryl Kruger of Granby and Nancy Diemoz of Swansea were tied at 80 for ninth place, and Carol Dulude of Wayland posted an 81 to nab the final slot. Those were the only Massachusetts golfers among the qualifiers.

Rocker’s golf tourney: In the category of things-we-missed-but-should-remember next summer, Aug. 9 marked the third annual Aaron Lewis Invitational Charity Golf Tournament at the Crumpin Fox Golf Club in Bernardston (about 10 miles north of Amherst). For those who may not be music fans, Lewis is the lead singer of the Springfield hard-rock group Staind, and also has a thriving solo career, where his songs are a bit more Americana, or even country tinged. (Catch Lewis headlining the DCU Center in Worcester on Sept. 27.)

In a nutshell, Lewis founded the It Takes a Community Foundation four years ago, when he discovered that a consolidation plan for rural schools in western Massachusetts would result in his daughter riding over an hour each way to her elementary school. Lewis began raising funds to support his community’s school immediately, and has kept it open ever since. Lewis is also an avid golfer with a 12 handicap and the tourney he began to benefit his foundation features a $5,000 purse. All of the proceeds go to the foundation, as well as to Big Brothers Big Sisters in Franklin County, and the YMCA in Hampshire County. After the golfers finish playing, the event concludes with a banquet and special acoustic concert from Lewis and assorted guest stars, which this year included Jeff Keith from the band Tesla.